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Experience wins it: All Blacks fly flag for thirtysomethings

Steve James

Richie McCaw holds aloft the World Cup in 2011. The All Blacks learnt from their mistakes in the 2007 tournament. Photo: Getty Images

The Grumpy Old Men. Remember them? Not characters such as John Humphrys and Jeremy Clarkson, who once appeared in the television programme of that name, but rather the England team who won the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2003. You know, captain Martin Johnson and his thirtysomething mates.

Before the final in 2003 The Daily Telegraph in Sydney led its back page under that headline of '"Grumpy Old Men" and it was a sobriquet that was reattached to the England team four years later in France, when some of the Victor Meldrew clones were still involved as England somehow found their way to another final.

When winning in New Zealand before that 2003 campaign, sports columnist Michael Laws had described them rather more colourfully as "giant gargoyles, raw-boned, cauliflower-eared monoliths that intimidated and unsettled. When they ran on to the field it was like watching a tribe of white orcs on steroids. Forget their hardness, has there ever been an uglier forward pack?"

It was all said out of respect, really. Nobody ever seems to find praising English rugby easy. But now a very genuine compliment has emerged from that part of the world. New Zealand have admitted that they learnt something from that 2003 England team.

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It is unsure how gritted his teeth were at the time, but Neil Sorensen, the New Zealand Rugby Union's general manager of professional players, has confessed that New Zealand rugby, with its history of World Cup chokes, learnt the value of experience from England. They are the new advocates of rugby senescence.

"I think we all probably learnt something from that team," he said. "There might be some players who lose a bit of speed as they get older but what our coaching teams reckon is that they more than make up for that with their reading of the game and their decision-making. That decision-making is critical. When you look at the 2011 World Cup, we had players making really good decisions in games that maybe we didn't have at the 2007 World Cup."

John Eales led an experienced Australian team to victory in 1999. Photo: Getty Images

First, it is refreshing to hear a New Zealander not blaming English referee Wayne Barnes for their quarter-final defeat by France in Cardiff in 2007. But hasn't this notion of the experience required to win a World Cup almost become a little too much of a cliche now?

The fact that Australia won it in 1999 with 622 caps in their team, England with 638 in 2003, South Africa with 688 in 2007 and New Zealand with 709 in 2011, has become almost as well known as Sir Donald Bradman's batting average (99.94 for the uninitiated).

New Zealand rugby, rather like the Australia cricket team who recalled troupers Chris Rogers, Ryan Harris and Brad Haddin in order to regain the Ashes eventually, has ditched the kids culture.

Apparently, according to The New Zealand Herald, in 2010 there were only six Kiwi Super Rugby players aged over 30; now there are 25. Last spring the All Blacks set a record by fielding a side with 853 caps against France. The average age of their 2011-winning side was 28, just as England's was in 2003. By next year that mean figure could be touching 30. They have a bevy of thirtysomethings including Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Conrad Smith, Tony Woodcock and Keven Mealamu.

It is an interesting counterpoint to the common wisdom that, because of the greater physicality and therefore shorter career spans (only seven years on average for a professional according to one recent survey), rugby union is becoming a young man's game.

It is intriguing to compare that with England, who travel to New Zealand this summer, play them this autumn and then could easily meet them in a World Cup final next year.

England might only have full-back Mike Brown aged 30 or over in that tournament next year. They have been fighting a battle over experience all year. Against both Ireland and Wales in the RBS Six Nations, they were heavily outnumbered in terms of caps, yet still won both games. They are unlikely to make that magical 600-cap mark by next year. They had only 356 caps in their last match against Italy, with an average age of just 25.

So does it really matter? England have another 15 Tests before the RWC. The 600-cap figure will not be far away - 581 taking the team who played Italy forward. England must prove that their own history is bunk.